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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25523317">Five Years Too Late</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/stalltherain/pseuds/stalltherain'>stalltherain</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Ones You Love [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Timeless (TV 2016)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Universe, Character Death Fix, Character Study, F/M, Fix-It, Friendship/Love, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Post-Canon Fix-It, Pre-Relationship, Slow Burn, Time Travel Fix-It</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 07:22:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,563</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25523317</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/stalltherain/pseuds/stalltherain</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After São Paulo, a regretful Lucy seeks to fix her mistakes and save the ones she loves, starting with her friend Garcia Flynn. (Part 1/7) -- Series relationship is primarily Garcy. This part includes Denise/Michelle &amp; friendship between Lucy, Denise, and Michelle.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Garcia Flynn/Lucy Preston</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Ones You Love [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1849153</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>42</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Five Years Too Late</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>SERIES NOTES:<br/>Warning: This series contains character death, references to character death &amp; reference to suicidal thoughts related to what was shown in canon. I assure you Flynn doesn’t stay dead. -- That's kinda the point.</p><p>This is a sequel to The Miracle of Christmas.</p><p>It’s a fix-it. While there’s some tongue-in-cheek, there's no bashing of the movie. Everything, including plot holes, is treated seriously. So if you did like the movie, you might still enjoy this fix-it fic.</p><p>If you didn’t like the movie, I hope you enjoy this even though it retains movie canon. </p><p>I wrote this because, by the end of the movie, I no longer liked the main characters or wanted to watch or read anything else about them. This was an exercise in exploring what could possibly have led the characters, specifically Lucy, to leave Flynn behind and give up on Amy -- as well as what would have led them to realize their mistake. As such, part 1 is heavy on character study.</p><p>My hope is that this will appeal to all fans who feel like Flynn deserved a better ending and that he had earned redemption, especially after his actions in the movie. </p><p>Expect to also address that Jessica didn’t get enough credit for standing up to her captors/brainwashers.</p><p> </p><p>  <strong>If you absolutely believe Lyatt belongs together, fair warning, you probably won’t like this. If you absolutely hate the idea of Garcy, fair warning, you probably won’t like this. It was originally supposed to be gen with only implied Garcy, but that’s not where it went.</strong></p><p> </p><p>Thanks to SetFiresJust2WatchThemBurn on ff.net for beta.</p><p>CHAPTER NOTES:<br/>Contains references to canon character death. </p><p>Bear with the beginning. Part of my exercise was to keep everything -- including the parts I found cringey.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s a beautiful afternoon. Warm, sunny. The sky a beautiful shade of blue. Pastel green leaves wave in the breeze. Butterflies dance in celebration above a violet spray of blossoms. Sunbeams set the sidewalk glittering underfoot.</p><p>Lucy Preston ignores it all.</p><p>She catches her reflection as she passes a store window. Hair pulled into a ponytail. Make-up but no lipstick. A dress to mark the occasion, but nothing special. Modest and muted.</p><p>Today isn’t a celebration. Today, Lucy feels black and white while the world is painted into a vibrant Monet. Today is Amy’s birthday. There should be clouds, darkness. Rain would be more appropriate. Not a beautiful cacophony of colors that her sister can’t enjoy -- has never even existed to enjoy.</p><p>Lucy reaches a glass-walled building with a sun and rainbow logo painted on the window. Beneath them are the words "Over The Rainbow". The day is mocking her. </p><p>Lucy pulls open the heavy glass door, and her lips curl upward as she spots a flare of color.</p><p>"Flynn." She waves with a smile. "Honey, it’s time to go. Get your sister."</p><p>She waits a moment, then her twin daughters bow at the edge of the aikido mat and run to their cubbies. One seems to be taking her time tying her shoes. Lucy notices the little boy next to her. Andres. She watches her daughter glance at the boy then scoot closer.</p><p>Lucy smothers a smirk. On a different day, she might have waited for her daughter to work up the nerve to talk to him. But today, they're behind schedule.</p><p>"Amy, hurry, please. Your father hates it when we’re late."</p><p>The girl gives up her attempts to talk to her crush and scrambles to gather her things. She follows her mother and sister making their way to the car.</p><p>Lucy pulls her SUV into Willow Creek Apartments and comes to a stop in visitor parking. As the girls hop out, she grabs their backpacks from the trunk then heads toward unit twenty-seven.</p><p>Wyatt pulls open the door at the sound of the bell. As the twins rush inside, he frowns at Lucy.</p><p>"You're ten minutes late."</p><p>"Sorry. I lost track of time."</p><p>Wyatt doesn't push it. Maybe he remembers what day it is and is cutting her some slack. Whatever the reason, she's grateful to avoid an argument.</p><p>"Girls," Wyatt turns and shouts into the apartment. "Get changed. Grandma's waiting for us."</p><p>Wyatt stands motionless, still holding the door. </p><p>They've done this exchange at least a dozen times, but it's still too new not to be awkward. There are still two weeks before the end is official. </p><p>With a forced half-smile, Lucy hands the backpacks to Wyatt then returns to her car. She pulls onto the road and is left to only her thoughts accompanied by the humming engine.</p><p>How had she gone wrong? Lucy had tried to leave the past in the past. She had thrown herself into building a perfect life. She had sought everything her mother raised her to recognize as success. </p><p>She pushed aside the loss of both her sister and her friend, convincing herself that her happiness would give Amy and Flynn’s deaths meaning. After all, Flynn himself had pushed her in that direction, told her she loved Wyatt, and written her encouragement to forgive him. It was in her journal. It was fate. Safety and comfort. Her respite after a long battle.</p><p>Loving Wyatt and marrying him had been the easy choice. Easier than chasing ghosts across time. The choice she owed Amy and Flynn. If she just kept smiling, eventually, she would truly be happy. She had to be.</p><p>###</p><p>
  <em> "Don't you feel even a little bit guilty for what we did to him?" Lucy raises her voice into a whispered scream, trying to keep the kids from hearing in their room. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> "For the thousandth time… no! Not even a little," Wyatt whisper-shouts as he picks up a dirty plate from the dinner table. "Flynn was a terrorist! It was about time he did something selfless." </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Lucy clenches her jaw. "That's not fair. He wanted to save his family. If we hadn't given him that journal..." </em>
</p><p>
  <em> "There it is again." Wyatt throws the dish into the sink with a clatter loud enough something might have broken. "I'm sick of you always blaming me, Lucy. What's next? Jessica? Oh, but Flynn was so great." </em>
</p><p>
  <em> "I didn’t say that." </em>
</p><p>
  <em> "Didn’t have to. You can keep denying it, but we both know you only chose me because he didn’t come back." </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Lucy balls her fists at her sides. "Why do you always trivialize this? I'm not trying to get a date, Wyatt. I’m talking about the morally right thing to do." </em>
</p><p>
  <em> "I’ve had enough of this." </em>
</p><p>
  <em> The slamming door echoes behind him.  </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Moments later, headlights shine through the window. His truck's engine revs before the lights drift down the street. </em>
</p><p>###</p><p>São Paulo changed everything. The man Lucy had met at the bar was not who she expected. She had imagined the same Flynn who terrified her in front of the burning Hindenburg. Jagged edges, fury, and vengeance. She assumed that was the man he became after losing his family. Instead, she found someone gentle and broken. A man who protectively put his hand on her shoulder and showed concern for a woman he'd never even met. </p><p>And he’d trusted her.</p><p>###</p><p>
  <em> "I prayed to God for answers, and he led me here, to this." </em>
</p><p>
  <em> "What if he led you to me? </em>
</p><p>###</p><p>But where had she led him?</p><p>As Lucy walked out of that musty bar and took one last look at Garcia Flynn, it hit her that she had abandoned him. A man who had become her friend. Worse yet, she handed him the journal that would lead him to repeat his tortured cycle. She created the monster she first believed him to be.</p><p>With her hand in Wyatt’s, Lucy dutifully returned to the lifeboat. When she arrived in 2023, the life that had once been her easy choice grew more difficult by the day.</p><p>She tried to get her husband to understand, to convince him they should save Flynn. Or hell, even just his family. That would be better than nothing. But the more Lucy tried, the more Wyatt dug in against the idea. The more his gratitude toward Flynn turned to disdain.</p><p>Wyatt remained convinced that Flynn alone was responsible for his path. They hadn’t set the past in motion, only followed a preordained trajectory. He believed Flynn had always died killing Jessica and nothing could change that. Despite Rufus’ attempts to correct him, Wyatt wouldn't hear otherwise.</p><p>Eventually, Lucy concluded that Wyatt needed to believe Jessica’s death was inevitable. If it weren’t and he made the choice to kill her anyway, Wyatt couldn’t live with himself.</p><p>When her husband’s reaction turned to jealousy, Lucy stopped trying to convince him. And she started realizing she wasn’t much different from him. She’d let her denial and blind faith in a journal lead her to a life she could no longer pretend she wanted. She started to question what led her to choose Wyatt and to give up on saving the ones she loved.</p><p>Nearly ten years ago, she lost Amy and discovered the man she believed was her father was a lie. Soon after, her mother, the woman she once idolized, revealed her sociopathic plans for the world. The man who had been her saving grace through that time chose another woman. His choice led to Lucy's mother bleeding to death in front of her. Even worse, hearing the woman’s last regrets burned to ash the little hope Lucy had of reclaiming the comfort of her mother’s love. In the blink of an eye, Rufus was murdered, robbing Lucy of the one friend who had been a constant. Then another blink and Flynn was gone, ripping away the only person left who had offered a listening ear while her entire world crumbled. The moment she acknowledged aloud that he might matter to her, he too was taken. </p><p>To Lucy’s shame, it had been too much. Losing that last support had broken her. When she thought the next blink took Wyatt too, she couldn’t take another loss. She’d grabbed hold, desperate for an end to the pain, for solid ground when every step she took made her world crumble further beneath her feet.</p><p>Clinging to Wyatt had felt safe, but the jump back was too hurried. Once cracked, the issues they never addressed started to seep through. Resentment of Wyatt for choosing Jessica over her, blindly protecting another woman and costing Rufus his life. Resentment for planting the seed that sent Flynn on the mission that killed him. For breaking her heart then telling her he loved her while she was reeling with grief and looking for a lifeline.</p><p>The resentments built into a torrent then became an uncontrollable flood. Her love for Wyatt washed away, replaced by a single-minded desire to save the people she cares about, starting with Garcia Flynn.</p><p>And so, five years too late, Lucy started asking herself the questions she once should have.</p><p>She came up with what she considered a simple rescue plan. They could go back to Chinatown before both the team and Rittenhouse originally landed. Bring Jiya back. If it didn’t work the first time, just keep going back earlier until it did. Jiya had been there three years before they reached her the first time. Eventually, with enough attempts, Jiya had to make it home with Rufus alive. It could have even spared Jiya the trauma of living in 1888.</p><p>Lucy is certain it would have worked without resulting in some universe-destroying paradox. But she’s never brought the idea up with Jiya or Rufus. How do you ask your friends if something you could have done seven years ago would have saved them pain?</p><p>Maybe they could have jumped back a few months and outed Jessica as a spy before she kidnapped Jiya. In and out before the effects of occupying the same time overcame them. They certainly could have done it with the upgraded lifeboat. With all the years future Lucy and future Wyatt had to form a plan that completely rewrote their past, they didn’t think of that? </p><p>Flynn had once called her a genius. <em> Yeah, such a genius that I spent who knows how many years coming up with the worst rescue plan in history. Even Marty McFly figured out he could leave a detailed note. </em></p><p>Sometimes Lucy still thinks about attempting it. Alone. Jumping back to 2018 and shouting, "Jessica is a spy," then jumping back.</p><p>Would they all be better off if the last seven years were rewritten? If Garcia were still alive? Even if it meant she remembered a different past than her friends? Even if it meant she became a stranger to them all?</p><p>It’s tempting not to try.</p><p>Lucy taps her phone on the dashboard, reminding herself of the reason she never has. Her daughters’ faces smile back at her from the screen. If she changed Chinatown, what else would change? Would they go to Sutter’s Mill? To the port of Hungnam? Would she still forgive Wyatt? Would they get back together? She could never do that to her children, risk letting them be wiped out of existence as her mother did to Amy.</p><p>Thanks to her friends, she finally has another way.</p><p>Lucy takes the final turn to her destination. It's dark as her tires crunch over gravel. She pulls her car to a stop and hops out then breathes in the familiar smell of rosemary as she crosses the yard.</p><p>This has become an annual tradition. Dinner with Denise and Michelle to honor Amy's birthday. It started years ago when her friend and former boss insisted she not be alone. The other woman’s own family wouldn’t even exist had Lucy not taken action to save them. Keeping Amy's memory alive was the least Denise felt she could do to repay that debt.</p><p>When the door opens, Lucy smiles, hoping her friend will forgive her for this year’s ulterior motive. Denise pulls her long-time friend into a hug. Lucy releases and is pulled in for another.</p><p>"Lucy, it’s so good to see you. What have you been up to?" Michelle raises an eyebrow as she steps back. "I hear you quit Stanford."</p><p>An awkward smile crosses Lucy’s lips before she musters a look of confidence. If she has any hope of convincing Denise of her plan, she has to seem like less of a wreck than she feels on the inside.</p><p>"I’m still keeping my options open."</p><p>"Good for you," Michelle says with genuine warmth as the trio makes their way toward the dining room. </p><p>For a split second, Lucy almost falls in love with her friend’s wife. She hadn’t even realized she was bracing herself for the veiled judgment that she’d received from colleagues and casual friends. Not to mention the internal voice that sounds a lot like her mother and nags her about how stupid she is to give up such a prestigious position.</p><p>Michelle smiles and leans against the back of a chair. "What made you decide to do it?"</p><p>Suddenly, Lucy’s confidence feels a bit genuine, as if she announced she’s going on a great adventure. This woman's marriage and children exist because her wife defied her family's expectations. She doesn’t give one shit about something as trivial as a family legacy at Stanford.</p><p>Denise casts a warning glare at her wife, and Michelle amends, "I’m sorry. I’m not trying to pry."</p><p>"No, it’s okay." Lucy pulls a chair from the dining table and takes a seat. "It’s a relief to have someone not look at me like I’m crazy when they hear I quit my job. I just..." Lucy’s eyes drift over the table setting. She has a canned response at the ready. She’s given it many times, but decides today she doesn’t need it. Her eyes soften and the corners of her lips drift upward as she thinks back years ago. "A good friend once told me I was nothing like my mother." She pauses, lingering on the memory. "But one day I woke up, and I realized somehow I ended up living her exact life. A husband, two daughters, a tenured professor at Stanford." <em> And treating other people like pawns to keep my perfect life </em>. She fumbles with the fork next to her plate. "Stanford was always my mother’s dream, not mine."</p><p>Michelle smacks the chair in front of her. "Well, I’m glad you’re going to find your own path." She smiles. "Pinot or cab?"</p><p>One side of Lucy’s mouth lifts upward. "Pinot."</p><p>Michelle moves across the room and stops behind Denise at the stove. Lucy watches her wrap her arm around her wife and place a kiss on her cheek. Denise’s face lights up as she leans into the kiss.</p><p>Lucy’s eyes drop to the table. She taps her fork against her hand, turning it in her fingers as she bites her lip. She intended to wait until after dinner. Nearly seven years have passed. What difference could an hour or two more make? But at this moment, every second feels like an eternity.</p><p>Lucy stands. "Denise, can I talk to you about something in private?"</p><p>She needs to save Garcia Flynn.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>If you're interested in subscribing, the rest will be published as a series because some parts are almost self-contained, and I want to tag each separately so that tags don't give away later plot points.</p><p>Thanks for reading. Feedback &amp; opinions welcome. Be polite.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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